Copper bullet report. Results on 5 pigs and 2 deer.

[Hitechhunter]

My double lunged shot was fairly well placed, but the small exit hole left no blood trial. I took a while to find the pig.

Sounds like the results reported are both good and bad, which means inconsistent. Inconsistent bullet performance is not a desirable trait.

 

[Shot]

I switch to Barnes TSX bullet a long time ago, way before the lead ban. Why? Well because out of 300 win mag these are the only bullets that group the best. At first I was worried about expansion, but after taking my first pig with it and recovering the bullet, all doubts had diminished.

To date, I have shot over 10 big game animals and not once has the Barnes bullet failed me.

 

[Huntr Pat]

last year 2007 shot this buck w/7mm weatherby mag tsx he went 15 yards but there was a small hole. I didn't sight in the gun from lead to copper. I could see sight in with copper from lead 154gr to copper 150 gr & $56 a box. The bullet shot almost the same just a little higher.
Hardly any exit wound blood.

 

[daddy63]

That's a nice buck Hunterpat.

 

[Hitechhunter]

Nice buck. A couple of the guys on my hunt were reporting 6 to 8 inch difference between lead and copper bullets, so be sure to sight it in everybody!

It's the lack of a large exit hole that has made game difficult to recover, no blood trail to follow. It took me about an hour to find my pig that was double-lunged, and it only went about 70 yards.

 

[Railguner]

It's funny......where in the Ballistic tips I ALWAYS felt you needed to shoot the heaviest bullet that they make for your caliber, because they were so fragile, I feel you need to shoot the lighter end of your caliber with these cooper bullets because they need to be stressed more to open up. Or, you MUST hit bone, make it a shoulder shot, you need to hit some dense mass to open these heavier rounds up because in a typical lung shot the heavy bullets just peel back a little and exit, not transferring enough energy to fully open your bullet or leave it Kinetic Energy dumped into the animal your shooting. RG

 

[ambarta]

Here is a pig taken from BHR In July 4th. Took 3 Shot gun slugs and 3 .308 shots to put him down. All bullets were Barnes copper solid

 

[Hitechhunter]

RG, good points. I hate ruining so much meat with a shoulder shot. Stepping up to a wider caliber bullet might help, too, like .338 instead of .300, so you start out with a bigger hole.

That pig above is an example of what I have been reporting. The goal is always one shot, one kill. These copper bullets are a step back, IMHO.

I hope the engineers at Barnes are reading this thread so they can get to work designing a bullet that has more "knockdown power", however that is defined.

I'm sure they have optimized their bullet designed using ballistic gel and measured data such as weight retention and penetration. However, what we are dealing with here is not quantifiable by those parameters. We are reporting empirical observations that I believe are valid concerns, yet off the radar of the bullet manufacturers. The engineers need to develop a method to measure this performance, then get to work improving it!

 

[Hitechhunter]

I've emailed this thread to Barnes.

http://www.barnesbullets.com/

"they’re the most effective and dependable hunting bullets you can buy"

Maybe, maybe not? I've had much better performance on animals with TBBC's.

 

[Mr. Luckypants]

Well one can say the same about other lead type bullets. My buddy shot a whitetail in KY and blew his heart out with a BT bullet and it ran for over a hundred yards.

He also shot a 4x4 last year and double lung it and it ran for over 100yds. This was also a BT bullet. He shoots a .270 using 130grns.

If you want instant death then shoot them in the head or high on the shoulder. You guys need a lot more data to say barnes bullets sucks. I personally killed 2 bucks with it. One went down right away and the other went about 40yds.

I guess led bullets sucks too eh?

 

[Hitechhunter]

I tried to tally up the results reported above, and came up with 19 poor performance reports and 28 good performance reports. That is a 40/60 split. Looks like the Barnes works good 60% of the time, not good enough for me if I'm presented with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. :~(

 

[Family Tradition]

I dont care what your shooting its all about shot placement from my bow to my .06 its shot shot shot placement. PERIOD

Broadheads, accubonds, copper it all kills in my book

FT

 

[Hitechhunter]

It ain't that simple.

What I'm seeing, and others are reporting, are drastically different results with basically the same shot, in my case a double-lung broadside hit at about 100 yards.

One visibly stuns and shocks the animal, leaves a large exit wound, a very visible blood trail and an easily recovered animal.

The other passes right through, the animal acts like it's not even hit, there is no blood trail, and the animal travels away making recovery difficult.

Shot placement (double lung) being equal, the bullet design appears to be the variable that produces dramatically different results. (My arrow shots produce a good blood trail.)

I think it's a valid issue to investigate.

 

[myfriendis410]

I quit shooting Sierra bullets 'cause they either didn't open up or blew apart. I lost a hog shot with a 160 gr. Accubond that bounced off it's head. My friend shot a hog after his first Accubond bounced off the shoulder at 50 yards! (The pictures are on Jesse's somewhere) If you shoot enough animals, you're going to have weird stuff happen. Hogs when shot tend to close up their wounds with their thick skin and that can pose huge problems for tracking. If you shoot a bullet of too weak construction, you may not penetrate the vitals. I prefer two holes and I much prefer two big holes.

And I agree; to some extent, it's bullet placement. But not always. What works on Monday, might not work on Tuesday. Maybe your spare change was in the wrong pocket........

 

[Family Tradition]

I'll stick by my comment 100%

Bullets will do different things on different days but a buck shot and having both lungs knocked out will die, its the hunters job to find him.

Hunting is just as much about after the shot as before, I do my job....before and after.

That said guys will lose animals they would have gotten before but they dont have to.

FT

 

[Hitechhunter]

I can kill with a .22 if I wanted to, but I'm trying to optimize my performance and be the best hunter I can be. I owe it to the animal to make a clean, precise and swift kill. If bullet design will improve my performance, even by a small margin, I'm going to pursue it. I suspect we are taking a step backwards from that goal with current solid copper bullet technology.

Lead is a softer and more compliant metal than copper, it conforms and seems to deliver more "shock and awe" than the harder copper bullet that is designed to cut through.

 

[Family Tradition]

Lead is better for sure I wont argue that BUT guys who lose animals with lead will with copper and those who dont wont in most cases.

In 20+ years of hunting I have NEVER lost an animal shot with a rifle and I shoot my fair share of big game last time I checked.

FT

 

[bobby7321]

been shooting barnes tsx and mrx for past few years. taken many animals, most did not hit major bone, and all have gone down within 20 yards. me and my family have been shooting barnes for years before it was mandatory, excellent bullets. always group well, and animals go down quick if not instantly.

 

[Family Tradition]

Ohhhhhhh

And I watched a hog shot between the eyes with a .270 and lead gear flop down.......do the hitchey then get up and run off like nothing happened.........but I wasn't the shooter.

I'd have not taken that shot myself.

FT

 

[myfriendis410]

Screw it in their ear and I don't care what you use; there's footage of a hog killed with an air rifle.

I am interested in what a bullet does after impact and I've also done my fair share of field autopsies. I'm not disagreeing with you FT, but I have to say, you haven't lost an animal YET. I too am ethical and conscientious about my shots. I double lunged a hog with a Sierra bullet and tracked him for over half a mile with a professional tracker before we lost him. Bullet placement was perfect, the cartridge was big enough and tracking conditions were ideal. I know he was lung'd 'cause of the pieces of lung hanging on the grass in a cone of aspirated lung blood about ten feet long that he expelled when hit. Went down like a ton of bricks and got up and stumbled off thirty seconds later. Sierra bullet, never opened up. Lost hog. Could I have done anything different? I suppose not shot, but was within my comfort envelope. Saw a hog shot with a .300 Wby shake the chest shot off and go on feeding! Hey, it happens! (Sierra bullet there, too)

I think if I were to err, it would be on the side of over-penetration versus under. I'm not trying to take away from your experience here, I'm just trying to say that the Barnes might stand improving, but so could an Accubond which is my favorite bullet.

I'm currently shooting the e-tip in my 7mm RM and when deer season is over I will whack a hog with it and see.